To the Editor:
In the early morning last Thursday, the University Police Department notified the community that it was investigating a hate crime that took place in a prominent location on Main Grounds: A man affixed a noose to the statue of Homer that has stood on the South Lawn since 1907. Later that day, President Jim Ryan issued a statement in which he condemned the act and promised to “undertake every measure to find out who did this and to hold them accountable.” On Sunday, our Black Law Students Association circulated its own statement, underscoring the ways in which such acts “are disruptive to the very education both we and our predecessors have fought so hard to secure.”
We know that many more colleagues share these and similar concerns. A few of us began an informal conversation that leads us to wholeheartedly endorse the sentiment poignantly expressed in BLSA’s letter: that the hurt, fear, and shock experienced by many in our community, especially Black students and other people of color, must compel us to redouble our efforts to grapple with the legacies of racial violence and exclusion here at UVA and in Charlottesville. Whatever the intended message, the act derives most of its power to shock from a history of racial terror, as President Ryan noted in his message. And it is incumbent upon all of us to meaningfully confront the ways in which such racism remains present within our institution today. Having passed the five-year anniversary of the Unite the Right rally a month ago, we note that it was neither the first nor the last time students here have faced such hate.
We know that part of the process towards addressing this shameful history must be instilling a collective commitment to opposing white supremacy. We must be vigilant against expressions of hatred, particularly those in our own backyard. Most simply, we stand with BLSA and all those fighting to make our community a more just, inclusive, and equitable space.
We regret that we were unable to circulate this statement widely before VLW’s print deadline. However, we invite other colleagues to add their names to an online version of this letter, available here: https://bit.ly/3BaUeTN
Naomi Cahn, Anne Coughlin, Kim Forde-Mazrui, Thomas Frampton, Craig Konnoth, Joy Milligan, Kelly Orians, and Bertrall Ross